The Beverage Lab (!) at idea specialist Cambridge Consultants has come up with a machine it claims can automate the tea making process, using small tea capsules to deliver tea at an unprecedented level of quality.

The process involves pumping hot water through a rotating capsule, with the developers claiming the spinning, bubbling process reduces the recommended brew time from four minutes to just two. The key selling point is the way tea operatives can specify the intensity of the tea produced, which should help make the tea brewing process as exciting a proposition as making yourself a posh coffee.

The machine is still only in the prototype stages, mind, with the creators openly asking for investors who might like to help take this idea forward and usher in an exciting new era of mechanically enhanced tea. [Cambridge Consultants]